Opening 2.0. Direct. I recorded the context around the Warsaw bootcamp, and the point of the episode is an approach you can use when you are done being subtle.
Subtle is where men hide. They say hello in a way that can be denied later. They compliment a jacket. They ask for directions they do not need. Then they call it game when she is polite. A bulletproof open is simpler and more exposed. You say hello because you want to talk to her, and the rest of the interaction has to live with that fact.
Direct does not mean loud, and it does not mean a speech. It means she knows why you are there within the first moments. The men who fear that are afraid of a clear no. A clear no is cheaper than a ten-minute conversation that was never going anywhere. The episode is me making the case for paying that price up front.
Warsaw is the room, not the product. Bootcamps are useful because you open enough times in a day that your clever indirect habit gets tired and the direct version comes out. If you only open twice a month, you will protect the indirect habit forever. Volume is what makes the direct open feel normal.
The cover is the greeting on the street. Say hello. Mean it. Let her answer. Then continue as a man who already told the truth about why he stopped, instead of as a man building a cover story he now has to maintain.
